Author: Thiru

The tenth session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) meets from Monday, 23 November 2015 to Wednesday, 25 November 2015.

As noted by WIPO, the

Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) was established by the 2002 WIPO General Assemblies with a mandate to carry out technical assistance and coordination in the field of enforcement (norm-setting is explicitly excluded from the mandate).

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Nestled at the end Intellectual Property Watch’s (IP-Watch) brilliant reportage of a US Chamber of Commerce event – “Has the Sun Set on Multilateral Rulemaking on IP?” – is a quote by Patrick Kilbride (Executive Director, U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global IP Center) praising the efforts of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in WTO negotiations on the LDC waiver for pharmaceutical products.

IP-Watch reported,

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In the early hours of Thursday morning, 15 October 2015, the WIPO General Assembly adopted the following decision related to the future work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). There was no consensus on future work so the Assembly directed the SCCR to “continue its work” on the protection of broadcasting organizations and copyright limitations and exceptions.

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The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) General Assembly is currently engaged five separate informal consultations on the following topics: 1) Lisbon Union, 2) the future of the Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, 3) the work program of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), 4) the Design Law Treaty and 5) WIPO External Offices.

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The WTO TRIPS Council meets from Thursday, 15 October 2015 to Friday, 16 October 2015. The hot topics for consideration include agenda item 13 (Request from the LDC Group for an indefinite exemption from WTO IP obligations to provide patents for pharmaceutical products, agenda item 8 (non-violation and situation complaints), agenda item 7 (Review of the Paragraph 6 system) and agenda item 14 (a discussion item co-sponsored by Australia, the European Union and the United States on “Intellectual Property and Innovation: Entrepreneurialism and New Technologies).

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On Wednesday, 7 October 2015, the United States of America delivered the following statement on agenda item 12 (Report on the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights). The US expressed support for a broadcasting treaty under a signal-based approach, focused on “unauthorized simultaneous or near-simultaneous retransmission of broadcast signals to the public over any type of platform, including the Internet.”

On copyright limitations and exceptions, the US expressed support for

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On Monday, 5 October 2015, Brazil delivered the following opening statement on behalf of the Group of Latin and the Caribbean Group (GRULAC) at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) General Assembly.

Statement Delivered by the Delegation of Brazil on behalf of GRULAC

“Mr President,

1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Latin American and the Caribbean Group (GRULAC).

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On Friday, 11 September 2015 five public interest groups (Health GAP, Knowledge Ecology International, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam America and Public Citizen) sent a letter to Ambassador Michael Froman (United States Trade Representative) and Michelle Lee, (Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office) requesting that the Obama administration disclose its position on the LDC request for an extension of their pharmaceutical production transition period under the WTO TRIPS Agreement.

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In a closely watched announcement, the European Commission issued a press release on Thursday, 10 September 2015 supporting the indefinite exemption for least developing country Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from TRIPS obligations on pharmaceutical products. These TRIPS obligations include pharmaceutical patents, pharmaceutical test data protection, exclusive marketing rights and the mailbox provisions.

The LDC Group, in their February 2015 submission to the WTO TRIPS Council, requested the following:

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